Seymour Guado
Maester Seymour Guado is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy X. He is the leader of the humanoid Guado race, as well as one of the Maesters of Yevon, which is basically a high-ranking priest. Seymour lost his unnamed mother when she sacrificed herself to become the fayth for an aeon called Anima, which she intended to have Seymour use to fight a monster known as Sin so that he could sacrifice himself in order to destroy it, grant the world of Spira a period of peace known as "the Calm," and have the people accept him despite his half-Guado/half-human heritage, before Sin re-formed and started its destruction once again. He was voiced by Alex Fernandez. Biography Before Final Fantasy X Seymour was the son of Jyscal Guado, who became leader of the Guado, and an unnamed human woman. Though his existence was meant to foster friendship between the Guado and human races, it only made him the target of both races' hatred. Fearing strife from his people over what they saw as an impure abomination, Jyscal had the wife of his retainer, Tromell, take the then-eight-year-old Seymour and his mother out of Guadosalam in the dead of night and bring them to the island of Baaj to live in exile. When he was but ten years old, Seymour was brought to Zanarkand, where his mother intended to become a fayth so her son could use her aeon incarnation, Anima, to win the peoples' love by destroying Sin and bringing the Calm. At the time, Seymour's mother was dying, motivating her desire to become a fayth for her son, even though she knew of the mechanics of the Final Summoning through Jyscal, as the Guado possessed their own records that tell of Spira's sealed histories in fragments. Jyscal was aware of Seymour and his mother going to the Zanarkand Ruins, and privately supported it. Not caring for acceptance if it meant losing her, Seymour mourned for his mother and did not use Anima to battle Sin. Instead, he returned to Baaj alone and spent his remaining childhood in the temple, where his isolation slowly, gradually inspired his nihilistic views on life and death. It also made him thirst for more power after tasting the initial amount he had gotten from his mother's aeon. At eighteen years of age, during High Summoner Braska's Calm, Seymour's exile was revoked, and he was summoned back to Guadosalam to help his father in the duties of a Yevon priest. A year later, Jyscal became a Maester of Yevon as part of Grand Maester Yo Mika's "sub-races appeasement policy." Seven years after returning to Guadosalam, Seymour, now twenty-five years old, assumed the post of high priest of Macalania Temple at Mika's nomination. He secretly traveled to the Zanarkand Ruins to transport Anima's fayth to the abandoned Baaj Temple and sealed it up. Afterwards, Seymour frequented Baaj and, during these visits, began formulating his plan. The rejection and loneliness of his childhood and his mother's sacrifice had made him fully nihilistic, and he longed to become Sin and destroy the world, "releasing" Spirans from the suffering of existence. Three years later, Seymour made his first move only two weeks prior to Tidus's arrival in Spira by murdering his father to succeed him as the leader of the Guado and as a Maester of Yevon, a move that even Jyscal saw coming, though not in time to avoid it. ''Final Fantasy X'' Yuna and her guardians first encounter Seymour in Luca when Grand Maester Mika announces Seymour's position as a Maester. Seymour secretly has fiends released within the blitzball stadium to win the spectators' trust by summoning Anima to dispatch them. Seymour then meets Yuna and her companions later on, when their pilgrimage is hindered due to a combined effort of the Crusaders and Al Bhed to battle Sin using machina, called Operation Mi'ihen. Though machina use violates Yevon's teachings, Seymour respects the groups' hope of saving Spira, though both he and Maester Wen Kinoc, an old friend of Auron's, believe it will fail. As Sin appears at the call of Sinspawn Gui, Seymour protects Yuna from the creature before aiding her and Auron in destroying it. Afterwards, while discussing with Yuna how her role as a summoner is to be a beacon of strength to the people, Seymour offers to be her beacon, secretly hinting at his true plan. When Yuna's party arrives in Guadosalam, Seymour summons the party to his manor, where he shows a sphere depicting the ancient city of Zanarkand. It displays images of Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon, the first summoner said to have defeated Sin with the Final Aeon and her husband, respectively. Seymour asks Yuna to marry him, if not for love, then to give the people of Spira reason to celebrate. Seymour gives her leave to think his offer over and departs to Macalania Temple. When Yuna's visit to the Farplane ends with her resending the spirit of Jyscal that had tried to leave, she learns of Seymour's act of patricide from the sphere the spirit leaves behind. Not wanting to get her guardians involved, Yuna decides to accept Seymour's proposal to personally deal with him. Arriving after Yuna and Seymour entered the Macalania Temple's Cloister of Trials, her guardians, with the help of a temple nun, find Jyscal's sphere in Yuna's belongings and view it. Confronted by Yuna's guardians before Yuna emerges from the Chamber of the Fayth, Seymour admits his crime while deducing Yuna's true intentions. The confrontation escalates, and after his bodyguards and Anima are defeated, Seymour fights Tidus, Yuna, Wakka, Naz, Lulu, Kimahri, Chico, Auron, and Rikku. He falls in battle upon his defeat and is killed. Tromell and the Guado carry away his lifeless body, refusing to let Yuna perform the sending. Due to his emotional ties to the world, Seymour's spirit then becomes an unsent. When Yuna is taken by the Al Bhed to their secret settlement, Home, on Bikanel Island, the Guado abduct her during their attack on it. Once Yuna is brought to Bevelle, Seymour marries her despite her guardians crashing the wedding. Seymour, Maester Mika, and Maester Kinoc use them as hostages to force Yuna to comply under the lie that they will spare them once the ceremony is complete. However, once the wedding does complete, Seymour reneges on the deal and orders the party to be killed. Yuna summons Valefor to escape, while her guardians use Rikku's flash bomb as a distraction to meet up with her in Bevelle Temple, after which they are arrested by Yevon officials. Tidus, Yuna, Wakka, Naz, Lulu, Kimahri, Chico, Auron, and Rikku are all put on trial for treason, with Yuna pleading her case to the Maesters of Seymour's actions and nature. Kelk Ronso, Spira's first Ronso Maester, is disturbed to learn that Seymour murdered his father, and when Yuna begs to be allowed to send Seymour, Mika reveals himself as an unsent, as well, and it is revealed that he has been running Yevon even since his death from old age. It is also revealed that he and Kinoc are willing to overlook and ignore Seymour's crimes, exposing the true corruption of Yevon. Yuna and her guardians are thrown into the Via Purifico, and Seymour volunteers to guard the exit in case they emerge alive, as Mika wants them killed to prevent them from being threats to Yevon by exposing their corruption to the people. Kinoc, not trusting Seymour, accompanies him. Sometime before the heroes escape the Via Purifico, Seymour murders Kinoc off-screen. After the party escapes, they find Seymour waiting for them on the Highbridge. After revealing his murder of Kinoc, he explains his views on life and death, along with his goal to use Yuna to become the next Sin to fulfill his goal to save Spira by killing everyone, which causes Tidus to declare him "totally nuts." Kimahri then attacks Seymour, impaling him with his spear. However, as this is Seymour's unsent form, he is essentially unharmed (or at least not majorly harmed) by this, simply saying that he will grant Kimahri his death since he seems to be wishing for it by attacking him. Seymour absorbs surrounding pyreflies, including those around Kinoc's corpse, and becomes Seymour Natus, whom the party battles and defeats. The group escapes from Bevelle soon after. The heroes eventually continue the pilgrimage to Mt. Gagazet, where the Ronso live. Kelk, having abandoned Yevon, allows Yuna to pass while he and his kin hold off her pursuers. The Guado invade Gagazet, with Seymour killing Kelk and any Ronso standing in his way. At the mountain's summit, Seymour overhears Tidus speaking to Rikku about his father, Jecht, the current incarnation of Sin. Offering Tidus his father's freedom, Seymour also tells Kimahri the fate of his people before then offering him the chance to join him: by letting him kill him to free him of the pain of losing most of his race. He then transforms into Seymour Flux and battles the party. He is again defeated and vanishes. Yuna makes it to Zanarkand, but upon learning of the Final Summoning's true nature, she rejects it. The party is forced to fight and kill Yunalesca's unsent form, ending the tradition of the Final Summoning for good, although this indirectly does Seymour a favor. The party then finds a new way to battle Sin by attacking it directly, invading it with their airship, the Fahrenheit, and traveling through Sin to reach and defeat Yu Yevon, the true being behind Sin's existence. There, however, they discover that Seymour has allowed himself to be absorbed by Sin, and he attempts to learn how to control it from the inside. Stating that Sin is now unstoppable without Yunalesca and the Final Aeon, he becomes Seymour Omnis, his final form. Once he is defeated, Yuna finally sends him. He accepts his fate, but warns that even after he is gone, Spira's sorrow would prevail. Tidus, however, assures Seymour that "Sin would be right behind him," and indeed, soon after his defeat, Sin is defeated for good, as well. ''Final Fantasy X-2'' In the wake of Seymour's demise, all of his crimes and offenses against Spira come to light over the next two years. As a result, by the time the events of Final Fantasy X-2 arrive, the people he left behind, the Guado, replace the Al Bhed as the new pariahs/outcast race of Spira. While Seymour was technically the one to actually commit most of the crimes, the people of Spira give no pardon to those closest to him, nor do they give quarter to those in his inner circle, all of whom knew of his plans and willingly aided him in them. They also punish all of the innocent Guado by proxy, excluding them from many of Spira's activities, whether government-related or not. They are even driven out of their hometown, Guadosalam, and are forced to take refuge in the Macalania Woods, as explained by Tromell when the party reunites with him. In addition, the remnants of the Ronso race, led by a young, ambitious Ronso named Garik, form a movement to exterminate the remaining Guado for Seymour's slaughter of their people, believing that it is the perfect compensation for the evil Guado maester's crimes, despite Kimahri, the new elder of the Ronso, ordering him against this course of action. Based on the player's choices throughout the game, Yuna, Rikku, and their new friend, Paine, could either actively stop Garik's plans from going forward, or simply let him handle it and thus allow the entire Guado race, including Tromell, to be wiped out and become extinct after a Ronso attack. Appearance Seymour is a tall Guado-human hybrid who has purple eyes, light-blue hair with two long, hornlike locks running down his back, and a large bang of hair falling over his face. His ornate robes are unlike those of the other Maesters of Yevon, being predominantly dark-blue with red trimmings and a green sash. The robe above Seymour's waist is open, exposing his chest with tattoos, and his sleeves fall to partially cover his hands. As a half-Guado, Seymour's fingers are more pointed than a human's, but not as long as a Guado's. His ears are rounded and humanlike, unlike the elfish ears of the Guado. The veins on Seymour's face are pronounced, and there are veins arching over his stomach, another trait passed on to him from the Guado. Seymour wields a staff in battle, though he is more proficient with magic. Personality Seymour believes, as many Spirans do, that Sin is eternal and sees death as a release from the sorrow of life, a mindset that gains him respect from the majority of Spira, with only Tidus and Auron showing distrust and dislike for him in their first meeting (though eventually, Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, Kimahri, and Rikku all begin to share their sentiments). Seymour appears courteous and affable, and is popular among Yevonites. In reality, however, due to his harsh and lonely upbringing, Seymour has developed nihilistic views on life. When called out, he drops the pretenses and reveals his true nature as an arrogant, cruel man. He has feelings for Yuna, to whom he proposes, but much of this attraction is due to a desire to gain her powers so he can become the next Sin. Seymour does not hesitate to kill anyone who stands in the way of his objectives, rationalizing that by murdering them, he has saved them from the pain of life. Though he is undoubtedly evil-natured, much of his malice stems from a sympathetic place: the trauma he suffered in his childhood. The Guado considered his birth a heresy and he had to witness his mother turn into a fayth. Quotes }} Gallery Seymour.jpg|Seymour Guado Musical Themes Seymour has a number of tracks created specifically for him. His primary theme is "Seymour's Theme" which is entirely orchestral. This track is both dramatic and calm at the same time, representing his dissonant serenity. This plays when he is first introduced as a character, before he is revealed as an antagonist. His second theme, "Seymour's Ambition", plays during the first battle against him. After a dialog revealing that Seymour had murdered his father to gain political power and inherit the position of a Maester, this altered version of his theme plays as the battle music. Later on in the game, a more eerie version of his theme, "They May Pass", will play. At this point, Seymour's insanity would already be known, but he uses his political power to let the party move on. In a cut-scene where the Maesters meet together, "My Father's Murderer", an even more eerie form of his theme, will play. This is because that even the other religious leaders become aware that he had killed his own father. Near the end of the game, in the antepenultimate boss battle of the entire story, his most noteworthy theme plays. This song is called "Fight with Seymour" as it is the fourth and final battle against him. Many have regarded it as among the best boss themes of Final Fantasy X. Unlike his theme song, this is more upbeat and dramatic, while incorporating both orchestral instruments and synthesizers. He takes on his final form "Seymour Omnis" which is very fitting for the battle. Omnis is Latin for "Every" (similar to Latin word "omnes" meaning "all") which refers to both the fact that in this battle he controls the strongest of all elemental black magic including Ultima, and how this character's ultimate goal is to commit omnicide, murder of absolutely everything. In his second and third battles, tracks not created specifically for him play, with the boss battle theme of Final Fantasy X playing in the former battle, and Lady Yunalesca's own battle theme playing in the latter. In the fight with "Seymour Natus", "Enemy Attack", the standard Boss theme plays. Natus is the Latin word for "Birth." This name likely represents the fact that at this point, Seymour is pronounced dead, and is an unsent being, only to reappear as a powerful enemy. In the fight with "Seymour Flux", "Challenge", the major Boss theme plays. This is often considered the most difficult fight against Seymour, and one of the most difficult storyline bosses in the entire game. The Latin word "Flux" refers to flowing, something being fluent, or continuous change/movement. This name makes sense, as Seymour is one of the most recurring and persistent villains in Final Fantasy. 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